Very often in the daily grind of our lives, we have a tendency to focus on all the annoyances--rude drivers who don't give way, poor service at service counters, neighbors with unshoveled sidewalks. It is almost as if we are hardwired to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects of life.

I am thrilled that Mary Shiffer is running for trustee on the New Leadership slate. As a good friend, I know that she is committed to doing what is best for Oak Park and that she has the qualities I want in a trustee; honesty, knowledge, dedication and civility.

"If relations between village hall unions and the village are as bad as you say, why has so little changed while the VCA/NLP have been in control of the board for almost two years?" asks attorney Morris Seeskin in a letter published by the Wednesday Journal in the Feb. 28 Viewpoints.

For quite some time, there has been a sustained attack on workers and the rights they have struggled to win by organizing themselves. In the United States of America, some successes include: safer working environments, guaranteed pension plans and health benefits for workers and their families. When workers organized and fought for and won these rights, many others reaped the benefits.

Wednesday Journal published a letter from a man demonizing a village trustee [Bob Milstein, your 15 minutes of fame are up, Viewpoints] on Feb. 14 (of all days!). There was not one specific fact or issue mentioned in the letter, not one! The letter was a character assassination.

I would like to nominate the Village of Oak Park for the "Globie" awards, held annually by the nonprofit organization Environmental Defense, for the worst contribution to global warming by local government officials for their plan to re-street the Marion Street mall.

One of the most fulfilling things about Oak Park is that we have a government that lets the citizen in. How, you say? By serving as a commissioner on one of Oak Park's 29 or so commissions, from Zoning Board of Appeals to Transportation to Citizen Involvement.